


Stars in the sky and us down below

by dubbledore



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Gen, Gen or Pre-Slash, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-04
Updated: 2014-07-04
Packaged: 2018-02-07 08:57:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,227
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1893033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dubbledore/pseuds/dubbledore
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>High school AU. Davos encourages Stannis to have a little fun on a Friday night.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stars in the sky and us down below

“You still behind me?”  
  
“Yeah.”  
  
“All right. Just follow my steps. There’s thorns and worse stuff around here.”  
  
“You should just tell me where we’re going,” Stannis panted, ducking under another low branch and straining to keep Davos in view through the gloom. “Are you sure we’re not breaking the law somehow?”  
  
Davos laughed. “Don’t worry. By the way, I didn’t think you’d be out with me this late. What about your curfew?”  
  
“My parents are in D.C. for the weekend. They got the nanny for Renly. It’s not really a curfew anyway, I just know when I should be back home.”  
  
“Pfft. Only you would _give_ yourself a curfew.”  
  
Stannis opened his mouth to retort, but when he looked up from his feet he saw that they’d reached the edge of the undergrowth. Ahead of them, vast and dark, lay the city reservoir.  
  
“Nice, huh?” Davos’s tone was casual, but when he glanced sideways at Stannis his eyes betrayed a kind of anxiety. Stannis had noticed this about Davos: He seemed exceptionally concerned with Stannis sharing his appreciation for the things he enjoyed most, and they rarely spent time outside of school together without Davos checking in with him at regular intervals to ensure that they were both having a good time.  
  
If it were anyone else, Stannis might have found this behavior annoying, even somewhat suspect—he was not, after all, accustomed to having his feelings taken into account. But it was simply a hallmark of Davos’s personality, this perpetual awareness of other people’s dispositions, and it was one of several things that Stannis valued most about him. What was more, his readiness to reply in the affirmative whenever Davos gently prodded him this way routinely outweighed whatever his true feelings on a situation might be—usually faint discomfort, his predominant state of being. He supposed this was what it meant to be in a friendship with someone, this odd mixture of both honesty and complaisance.  
  
“Yeah, it is,” he replied. “Nice.” A satisfied smile crossed his friend’s face, and they regarded each other agreeably for a moment.  
  
Then, before Stannis quite knew what was happening, Davos had stripped off his shirt and was hopping out of his ratty cargo shorts. “What—” he began, coughing when his voice cracked, “—what are you doing?”  
  
“Going for a swim,” Davos replied, grinning at Stannis with a sudden, wicked gleam in his eyes. He gave the waistband of his boxers an experimental snap before turning back to the water eagerly.  
  
“You can’t!” Stannis hissed, even as Davos stepped back a few paces for a running start. “The reservoir is restricted city property, do you have _any_ idea—God!” Davos crashed into the water like a cannonball, his whoop accompanied by a horribly loud splash.  
  
“Stannis!” Davos was breathless with excitement when he surfaced, his face half-shadowed in moonlight. “Now you _have_ to come in with me! Come on, Mr. Swim Team!”  
  
“I don’t have to do anything! Lower your voice!” Stannis was torn between the sight of Davos down there in the water and looking around in every direction for uniformed officials, no doubt running to apprehend them at this very moment. “We shouldn’t have come here in the first place, if we’re found...”  
  
“Oh, c’mon, the risk is half the fun.”  
  
Stannis began to step backwards. “No, no. No, it’s not. I can’t—”  
  
“Stannis!” Davos lurched forward with another almighty splash. “Stop, come on! We won’t get caught, seriously.”  
  
“How do you know that?” Stannis demanded.  
  
“Okay, okay, look. I come here all the time. To smoke,” Davos admitted. “There’s no security or anything around this part of the lake. I promise, no one will ever even know.”  
  
“I... You shouldn’t smoke,” Stannis sniffed, and then commanded his face to remain stony when Davos smiled brilliantly, knowing he’d conceded. “And you shouldn’t make promises you don’t know you can keep.”  
  
“I promise I’ll stop,” said Davos with disarming earnestness. When Stannis threw him a look, he added, “Making promises.” Ignoring Stannis’s snort in response, he lay back to float spread-eagle on the water, infuriatingly carefree.  
  
With Davos thus making an apparent study of the night sky, Stannis was left standing awkwardly at the water’s edge with nothing to do. He took the opportunity to eye his friend discreetly. Davos was skinny, even skinnier than Stannis, who, despite lacking Robert’s well-muscled bulk, had nothing to be ashamed of nevertheless in the boys’ locker room. Stannis supposed it was all the cigarettes, and possibly not having that much to eat at home. He guiltily thought back on how quickly Davos had wolfed down those three hamburgers back at the bowling alley. For a moment he considered whether Davos hadn’t befriended him simply for the convenience of having a friend who would pay for everything without a thought, and his eyes snapped up to Davos’s face, as if he could detect a dishonest soul just by examining his face.  
  
“So.” Davos’s voice cut into his cheap thoughts, and he pushed them away forcefully. “Am I just gonna, like, float here by myself with you watching me, or are you going to jump in, too? And have fun for once?” He swiveled his gaze away from the stars to settle on Stannis, a half-smile turning his lips.  
  
“I have fun,” said Stannis automatically. He began fingering the hem of his polo shirt. “You ever tried following the law? It’s thrilling.” Davos laughed, long and loud, his amusement stoppered by a sharp inhalation in that way he had, and Stannis went on. “I _had_ fun. Bowling.”  
  
“Good. I’m glad you did.” Davos lifted his head and returned to a vertical position in the water. “Keep having some.” And with a sudden, sharp movement, he sent a sheet of water flying at Stannis, who dodged sideways just in time to avoid the worst of it.  
  
He stared thoughtfully at Davos for a few still seconds. Davos looked back bearing an expression of wariness mixed with daring. And at the very moment his heart seemed to give a particularly resonant thump, Stannis decided.  
  
He pulled his shirt off in one smooth, practiced movement—or, at least, it would have been if he’d remembered to unbutton his collar. The shirt caught tight against his face, and in his mortification he was reminded in a flash of the condoms they’d had to put on those stupid bananas in sex ed last week—another mortifying occasion, though at least then his embarrassment had been shared by most of his peers. With Davos’s laughter burning in his ears, Stannis fumbled to undo the top button on the shirt and hastily freed himself, although he was half-tempted to don it again and just call the whole thing off.  
  
“Don’t—don’t even!” he warned, stationing his hands at his hips in the face of Davos’s hoots, but his friend’s mirth was at such heights that he was impossible to subdue. Davos had begun slapping the water repeatedly, his eyes screwed helplessly shut.  
  
Stannis quickly shed his pants, deciding to forgo folding his clothing for now, for this was his chance to turn the tables—and he would take it. A crooked smile took over his face, involuntary and almost surprising, just before he dove into the water and proceeded to initiate a barrage of splashes on an unsuspecting Davos.

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. Soundtrack: ["Nightswimming"](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-YHU6BwPR0) by R.E.M.
> 
> 2\. Inspired by a couple of tumblr posts: first [this](http://coervus.tumblr.com/post/85071374412), then [this](http://coervus.tumblr.com/post/89111861322). Naturally, Melisandre was the one totally unperturbed in sex ed.


End file.
